decontaminate
to make (an object or area) safe for unprotected personnel by removing, neutralizing, or destroying any harmful substance, as radioactive material or poisonous gas.
to make free of contamination; purify: to decontaminate a sickroom.
Origin of decontaminate
1Other words from decontaminate
- de·con·tam·i·na·tion, noun
- de·con·tam·i·na·tive, adjective
- de·con·tam·i·na·tor, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use decontaminate in a sentence
He would spend at least a half-hour being decontaminated afterward.
‘He Could Have Brought Ebola Here’: Minnesota Widow on Her Husband | Michael Daly | July 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhat loot they gathered, obviously, could be decontaminated before it was returned to Weald.
Pariah Planet | Murray LeinsterIf you overstay the limit and cannot return, you will be decontaminated just as we must be when we return to our own people.
Shock Treatment | Stanley Mullen"No sleep, that's all," he said breathlessly as he crawled out of his decontaminated pressure suit.
Star Surgeon | Alan NourseIt was a barren rock, but we decontaminated again after leaving.
Contamination Crew | Alan Edward Nourse
In Pasadena, they told him a diesel railway engine had been successfully decontaminated and put into operation.
The Year When Stardust Fell | Raymond F. Jones
British Dictionary definitions for decontaminate
/ (ˌdiːkənˈtæmɪˌneɪt) /
(tr) to render (an area, building, object, etc) harmless by the removal, distribution, or neutralization of poisons, radioactivity, etc
Derived forms of decontaminate
- decontaminant, noun
- decontamination, noun
- decontaminative, adjective
- decontaminator, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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